The happy hour
included activists, economists and business people who clinked glasses
and gave away door prizes, including a “Build That Bridge” button once
handed out by the project’s many backers.

Maybe they should have checked the CRC’s pulse first.

Even as the project’s staff members clean out their desks, CRC officials are hoping to resurrect it from beyond the grave.

The $3.4 billion
effort to expand Interstate 5 interchanges, replace the spans between
Oregon and Washington, and bring light rail to downtown Vancouver
purportedly died June 30 when the Washington Senate killed its funding.

Gov. John Kitzhaber and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee immediately announced they were shutting down the project.

But interviews and records show CRC officials are still pursuing the state and federal permits needed to build the bridge.

CRC spokeswoman Mandy
Putney confirmed the project isn’t pulling any of its permit requests.
She says Sept. 30 is the deadline the Oregon Legislature gave Washington
lawmakers to deliver their half of the $900 million needed in state
funding. That’s also the date by which the Coast Guard is expected to
answer whether spans with 116 feet of clearance would be high enough to
allow river traffic through.

“It seems too soon to preclude anything from happening,” Putney says.

Federal officials
also say they still have hope the CRC can be revived. The CRC is still
seeking to land $850 million from the Federal Transit Administration to
fund the light-rail portion of the project.

FTA administrator Peter Rogoff released a statement to WW in which he continued to praise the project’s “economic and safety benefits.”

“The U.S. Department
of Transportation is disappointed with the current situation but is
working with leadership in both states to determine what options remain
available,” Rogoff says.

CRC opponents, having
put down their celebratory drinks, say they aren’t surprised state
officials are still pushing the project.

“The CRC folks and
supporters think if they get these permits in place, they can put this
on the shelf until next year,” says Tom Buchele, a Lewis and Clark Law
School professor whose endangered-species lawsuit against the CRC is
still active. “It’s really wishful thinking and a waste of public
resources.”

The Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality, for example, was to review the CRC’s plans to
perform work in the Columbia River—such as building piers to hold up
the new bridge.

But CRC officials have told the DEQ to keep working on the review, despite the public proclamations the project is dead.

“It lives, I guess,
in some way, shape or form,” says Courtney Brown, a DEQ employee working
on the review. “They haven’t said anything more beyond saying they
don’t want to withdraw the application.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard is continuing to spend taxpayer money to work on permits for the bridge.

“It is up to the
applicant to determine how they want to move ahead,” says Coast Guard
spokeswoman Lisa Novak. “The Coast Guard will continue to review the
bridge permit application while awaiting further information from the
CRC.”

So is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which must approve in-water work and changes to the Columbia’s navigation channel.

“We haven’t had much
interaction with them on this since the first of July,” says Army Corps
spokeswoman Marci Johnson. “We have not received a withdrawal request
for the permit.”

Oregon and Washington
taxpayers have already spent $172 million on planning for the CRC.
Washington will have its employees out of the project by Sept. 1. Putney
says about 35 of its 96 employees are still working in the CRC office.

“The governor’s
office, if they’re serious and they meant what they said about closing
it down, they should pull these permits and lawsuits,” Buchele says.
“Nobody should be wasting time on this project.”

Kitzhaber’s office
insists the CRC office is closing down. However, spokeswoman Amy
Wojcicki says Oregon is going to try and use the decade’s worth of work
on the CRC to see if traffic would be improved with upgrades to
interchanges on the south side of the Columbia River.

Buchele says it’s just another sign that entrenched supporters are having a hard time letting go.

“There are some
people in the CRC office,” Buchele says, “who aren’t going to stop this
until they’re fired and the locks are changed.”

"In the low usage areas, we found that our vehicles sit idle four times longer, ultimately affecting overall vehicle availability for the Portland membership base, as well as parking for the Portland community."

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